M. Labori.—“In the last interview that M. Leblois had with General de Pellieux on November 29 did not General de Pellieux say to M. Leblois that he could not order an expert examination of the bordereau, because the bordereau had been attributed to Dreyfus by the verdict of 1894, and that to so order would be a reconsideration of the thing judged?”
General de Pellieux.—“Certainly.”
M. Labori.—“Did not M. Leblois attempt to refute this argument, which was abandoned by the minister of war himself when, after M. Scheurer-Kestner’s interpellation of December 17, he transferred the bordereau to the Ravary papers for expert examination?”
General de Pellieux.—“Yes. I will even add a detail. I did not think that I had the right, as a judicial officer of police, to subject the bordereau to a new expert examination. It was my personal opinion that to do that would be to reopen the Dreyfus case. I was not alone in this opinion, for, when I received the order, which I executed, to lay the bordereau before the minister of war and submit it to expert examination, I was confronted with a strike of experts. That is a rather rare thing. The experts for whom I sent refused to make the examination, basing themselves on the ground that I had taken, and saying that to make a new examination of the bordereau was to question the thing judged. There are five experts in the same court. Three of them had been concerned in the Dreyfus case. I sent for the other two. They refused to come. I immediately reported the matter, because I desired to close my inquiry as soon as possible, because I felt that the public was getting impatient, and because I was to make only a preliminary investigation. So it was on the order of the minister of justice to the experts that the examination was made. Major Ravary ordered it.”
M. Labori.—“Was not General de Pellieux present at the second session of the council of war held on Tuesday, January 11, 1898?”
General de Pellieux.—“I was present at all the sessions of the council of war as a delegate of the governor.”
M. Labori.—“Did not the general wear civilian dress?”
General de Pellieux.—“Yes.”
M. Labori.—“Did he not sit behind General de Luxer, president of the council?”
General de Pellieux.—“Yes.”